The Shifting Balance
by LuneCramoisie
Summary: What future is there for a frightfully weak member of a shinobi clan? Constantly watched by stronger clan members for even the faintest sign of defectiveness, how long will Kurai survive the harsh world of a kunoichi? HIATUS
1. Chapter 1: Weakest Link

It was chilly in the Land of Clouds. Not surprising, though, as it usually was over-cast with a damp draft. It was a common enough occurrence to go without seeing the sun for weeks. Kurai was used to that. It was also a common occurrence to hear her family arguing. That she _wasn't _used to. But, really, would you eve get used to hearing your own flesh and blood argue over whether they should just kill you?

Kurai was weak. Mama knew that, grandma knew that, Hikaru knew it, all the other shinobi and civilians of the village knew that. She was a weak member of a strong clan. Every once in a while someone would say within ear-shot, "Where did the Torakiba Clan go wrong?" Of course, anyone only said it when no member of the Torakiba was near enough to hear them. The speaker would be subjected to a graphic threat and a cold stare by the Torakiba who had heard. The Torakiba would defend the clan, but not the weak child.

"If you want some respect, earn it." Her cousin, Kagemaru, would snarl, pushing her into the nearest muddy puddle.

"What future have I given birth to you for?" Mama would mourn, staring with sorrow at her frail daughter. What future indeed, as an easy target for enemies of the Torakiba Clan?

"Poor child." Grandma would smooth back her limp, dull black bangs off of her pale forehead and look with unreadable eyes upon her granddaughter. "You were well-named 'without light'."

She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around her legs, keeping a firm, skinny arm around her teddy-bear.

"…future!" it was back to that again. She could hear the argument clearly, as it was the annual Torakiba Clan meeting. They had been talking all day and only now were they getting around to the old subject: whether she should live or die.

"She's one of our own, Tora." That voice was chilling and Kurai recognized it as grandma's as she put down her nephew. "Kurai is weak, yes, and I hardly see a future for her. As I was saying before, we could have her raised as a civilian and had her learn a normal profess-"

"Then our enemies will find it even easier to kidnap her and find out our secrets." That voice could only belong to Inazuma, Kurai's aunt and her mother's younger half-sister. Inazuma always possessed a morbid sense of humor, only heightened by her years as an ANBU.

"Then what do you suggest, Inazuma?" that was Kurai's mother, Hanabira.

"I suggest we train her up as a kunoichi." Inazuma's voice was darkly amused. Cries of outrage were added to that.

"Preposterous!"

"Teach her our secrets when she's already a prime kidnapping victim?"

"She'd die the first day!"

"I wasn't finished." Inazuma waited for the yelling to subside. "She's got talent, save that she's amazingly weak. She's… what, four?"

"Seven." Hanabira's voice spoke of tightly controlled rage.

"Same difference. Anyways, she's of our clan, ladies and lone gentleman." Kurai could hear the nod in Tora's direction. "It's unheard of for one of our brood to forgo training."

"We should never have given up the old ways." Tora grumbled. "In our day, twins would kill each other! It kept the balance in tact. It would weed out the weak. Hikaru is a fine, strong girl. Strongest kid I've ever seen. She's got stamina and chakra enough for three kids her age!"

"There's something not right about Hikaru." Was all Inazuma said. "It's unnatural, all the energy she has. I'll train Kurai if no one else will." Dead silence greeted her statement.

"But you're in the Black Ops Squad!" another voice, one Kurai didn't know, said. It probably belonged to some aunt or cousin that only came back to the ancestral home once a year for the meeting.

"So? I planned to take a few years off, anyway. I still have some old wounds that haven't quite healed all the way. I can train a single rookie. She'd be left in the dust by the other kids, anyway. I wouldn't trust her to not get flattened at the village training school."

"But…" doubt was evident in Hanabira's voice.

"Hana,_you _may want to dither about with what to do with Kurai. I don't. Go worry about the other brat you birthed. Something's not right with the blonde one, I can assure you. Something's off about her."

There was the rattle of the rice-paper door opening and Kurai jumped, scrambling to hide before a voice said, "Hey, kid." She stopped, looking up from her position on the floor at her aunt. Inazuma was a great beauty, everyone agreed. It was slightly marred by her narrowed, sadistic eyes and dark smirk. Her hair was ink-black, her eyes a light reddish brown, and she kept the typical widow's peak and sharp chin of the Torakiba line. She was neither tall nor short, but leanly built but still with enough of a figure to tell she was female from behind. She flicked her long, pale fingers at Kurai. "Get up."

"She was listening!" the other meeting participants looked with varying degrees of alarm and anger through the door at their youngest clan-member.

"I said _up, _kid. Let's go for a walk." Kurai was hauled roughly to her feet by the back of her red kimono, ducking her head down and tightening her grip on her teddy-bear. She refused to look at her mother. Hanabira looked like she was going to burst into tears at any moment. "You won't need that." Inazuma flicked her eyes at the teddy-bear. Slowly, eyes never leaving her aunt, Kurai put the bear down and trotted after the elite kunoichi into the drizzle, pausing only to slip on her geta.

"Umm… Oba-san?" Kurai finally asked after fifteen minutes of walking out in the drizzle. The sky was gray with clouds and it was impossible to tell what time it was. The ANBU winced.

"I'm not _that _old, kid. I'm only twenty-six. It's Inazuma. None of that 'oba-san' crap."

"So… Inazuma-san?"

"Yeah?"

"Where're we going?" Inazuma turned her head and flashed her niece a savage grin that any tiger would have been proud of.

"_Training_."


	2. Chapter 2: Cloud Walk

Author's note: Bit of a time-skip here, nothing major. A year or so.

"What the hell, Hikaru! How can you still be able to do that?" Kagemaru, completely exhausted, was sitting on the porch during a rare sunny day. Kurai, now ten, had fallen asleep watching her twin sister, Hikaru, sparring with her cousin.

Hikaru and Kurai could not have been any more different. Where Kurai was pale, dark, and weak with light amber eyes, Hikaru was tan, blonde, and stronger than an ox with bright black eyes. She seemed to almost exude energy and chakra, nearly glowing with good health whereas Kurai seemed to nearly soak up the sun in an attempt to even gain a normal ten-year-old's energy. It was sad, really, that in the olden days Kurai wouldn't even have still been alive. It was family tradition for twins to fight to the death in hopes of retaining the "balance". The Clan's crest was even a Yin-Yang symbol set in a square formed by four black dots. To all appearances, Hikaru was the Yin and Kurai the Yang.

Kurai didn't even twitch when Hikaru plunked herself down right beside her. The poor kid was exhausted after a morning of "special training".

"How long's she gonna sleep?" Hikaru cocked her head, looking down at her twin. Kagemaru shrugged.

"She's always sleeping. I don't know why Inazuma bothers. She's weak." He looked down at his younger cousin with disdain, his hawk-like face much like his father's.

"Go-" Kurai responded with an extremely graphic offer. "-yourself." She uncurled herself and sat up, vertebrae cracking. She yawned hugely, feeling as if her narrow little jaw was going to dislocate. She stood up, patting the dust off of her black tunic.She flicked her ponytail over her shoulder and walked off.

"I'm weak," she called over her shoulder at the corner of the house. "But I'm sure as hell a better ninja than you are, Kagemaru."

"What?" he shouted, stomping after her. At thirteen, he didn't like to be talked down to by his baby cousin. He glared down into her face. She looked up at him, lone visible eye impassive through her bangs. "I'm the best genin here! Everyone says so!" Hikaru made a little disbelieving noise through her hand, but no one noticed. It was true, though. Kagemaru was a gifted genin if there ever was one.

"You rely on your strength too much," Kurai's mouth tossed out harsh words like sharp rocks. "You don't think. You meet your enemies head-on like a dumbass."

"And _you_ couldn't hit a practice dummy without bruising your poor little hand." Kagemaru pushed her, but Kurai grabbed his wrist, digging fingernails that had suddenly become claws into his flesh. He didn't yelp, instead snarling in fury. How could girl who wasn't even strong enough to become a genin learn to use the family blood-limit already?

"What can I do to get a little respect around here?" her voice was cool, expressionless. Her eyes were unreadable but Kagemaru was almost sure that he could see the tiniest flicker of uncertainty in their amber depths. He was taken aback by the question.

"The day you beat me is the day I respect you." He growled with a sneer. She would never be able to beat him. He was over a foot taller than her and weighed about sixty more pounds in muscle. She released him, running her long, pink tongue over a bloodied claw.

"Then that day will come." She said, a faint purr of anticipation in her voice. "I've already had a taste of your blood. I am eager for more." There was the flicker of a genjutsu and she disappeared in a breath of dust.

Kagemaru eyed the wounds in his arm as if they would immediately turn green from rot. Finally, he said, "She's been around Inazuma too much. She's beginning to talk like her." Hikaru was more than delighted. Her twin had such power, even with all the odds against her! _And more power for the taking._ She was faintly breathless at the prospect.

"You're joking, right?" her voice came out as a high-pitched squeak and she was shivering, only wearing a very short kimono, just like her sensei.

"Darling, do I _ever _joke?" Kurai looked up at Inazuma, mimicking her confident smirk and saying at the same time, "It gives me wrinkles." Inazuma proceeded to stretch, not bothered by the fine drizzle and the thick mist. Finally, she leapt, doing a handspring right over into the gorge. Kurai gave a strangled shriek but cut it off when she saw her aunt standing on thin air. A huge canyon called Cloud Gorge sported a rocky bottom and a ferocious river. Inazuma was standing two hundred and fifty feet over it on _air_.

"You're going to teach me how to do that, right?" Kurai squeaked, feeling her knees trembled. Inazuma did a few cartwheels, seemingly walking on the fog.

"Of course. And you're learning in the best way possible."

"And which way is that?"

"With a handicap. You're cold, yes?" Kurai didn't bother answering, trusting her chattering teeth to do the talking for her. "Perfect. It'll be harder to focus."

"But…" she tip-toed to the edge of the canyon and looked down, only able to see five feet in any direction through the mist. She was already soaked to the skin and could feel yet another head-cold coming on. "Umm… what?" Inazuma kept doing cartwheels on the air as she explained.

"You have so little chakra, I'm amazed you're even still alive and able to do genjutsu. _But, _the less you have the better control you have over it. You mastered tree-climbing the first day. You could already walk on water on your third try before collapsing halfway out." Kurai blushed with embarrassment. She had gotten influenza from falling into the freezing-cold water of the lake. "Now, you've already had your afternoon nap-" Kurai flushed an even deeper shade of red at the slur in Inazuma's voice. She always had to rest or she would faint. "-you should be relatively fresh." But then her eyes suddenly softened and she walked over to Kurai, resting a hand on the head crowned with luster-less black hair.

"It's not you're fault you're not as strong as the others." She murmured. Tears of rage glittered in her niece's eyes as the Torakiba looked into her eyes.

"Inazuma-sensei…" Inazuma winced inwardly. She hated the "sensei" bit. "I know I am weak. I know that for years everyone's talked of having me killed." Inazuma was cautious. She had never heard that tone before. It was at the same time furious and dispassionate. But Kurai's eyes no longer held rage as she realized the hopelessness of her situation. "I am weak, I will get killed sooner or later, either by the clan or a real enemy. I am working at a disadvantage. But I am glad I have that disadvantage, sometimes. I am forced to work harder and better myself constantly."

Inazuma gently gripped her niece's chin and tilted her head back, the better to look at her.

"It doesn't bother you that you are ten times as vulnerable as any other clan member? Even Obaba?" a small, sad smile crept its way onto Kurai's face.

"It bothers me, but not too much. There's not a whole lot I can do about it. I will show them all someday that I am stronger than any of them."

Inazuma ruffled her niece's limp bangs.

"Come on, kid, let's get to work."

Kurai scrubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and snapped to attention, still shivering violently in the cold.

"Couldn't we have worn weather appropriate clothes?" she sniffed, feeling a cold coming on. Inazuma scowled.

"Now. Beginners should learn with a lot of water in the air. Shinobi can walk on water. Thus, you can have your feet stick to the water _in the air_. That's why we're doing this now in the drizzle. Less clothes means less weight and less that can get wet and weigh you down even more. Catch my drift?" the girl nodded, not really sure what else to do.

"Then could you have taught me _not _over a canyon? Maybe off of a tree stump or something?" Inazuma sighed, shoulders sagging. Then, with a burst of speed Kurai could never have fathomed, Inazuma grabbed her niece's wrists and slung her out across the gorge.


	3. Chapter 3: Maybe I can do it

She couldn't even scream. All the breath seemed to have left her body leaving nothing to cry out with. _I'm going to die._ She thought briefly, convinced that the clan had finally decided that she would die. But, maybe…"Chakrachakrachakrachakra…" she thrust chakra into the bottoms of her feet and twisted, fighting to at least land on empty air on her feet.

Kurai could see Inazuma just watching her, one eyebrow cocked and a smirk on her face. The level side of the canyon was coming up level with her head. She concentrated more chakra into her toes and heels but she didn't slow down at all. She was falling through the mist and soon she couldn't see her sensei. Panic welled up in her throat like blood. She forced all of her chakra into her feet and finally ground to a halt, badly shocking her ankles and knees.

Inazuma was having misgivings. The little twerp should have surfaced by now. The fog dampened all sound and made visibility practically nonexistent. Then, out of the mist, a small dark figure appeared. She shakily climbed as if going up a rickety staircase. Kurai scowled as her aunt cackled, perspiration making her face glisten.

"You are despicable!" she spat, hands on her knees as she fought to catch her breath. "What if Ihadn't gotten the hang of it before I hit the ground?" Inazuma shrugged.

"Then you weren't worthy enough to learn this technique," she responded airily, waving her hand as if brushing off a cloud of midges. Kurai shivered at the careless tone in the older kunoichi's voice. "But you _did_ learn it. You know what it's called?" Kurai just glared at her. "Aruki no Kumo no Jutsu, The Walk of Clouds."

Kurai opened her mouth to say something rude then paused. "Isn't that some family technique or something? I've heard it before…" Inazuma grinned.

"I got it from an old Tsubasa Clan member because I saved his ass. C'mon, kid. Lemme see you do it again."

* * *

"Sensei, how come I have to spar with her?" The boy demanded. 

"Because she could kick your ass if she wanted to. Now shut up and quit whining." The boy muttered rebelliously and slid into an offensive Taijutsu stance opposite the runty girl.

"Fine. Come on, Runt. Let's go." He growled, lashing out with a fist. The girl ducked, not even bothering to form her own stance.

"I'm faster than you," she pointed out, somewhat unnecessarily.

"Heh. You're putting too much energy into it, Katsuo!" Hikaru jeered, hanging upside from a tree branch and doing crunches.

"Shut up, Hikaru!" The boy, Katsuo, snapped.

"Katsuo, if you want her to shut up, _make_her shut up." Inazuma-sensei yawned lazily, lounging on a fallen log as they trained in the pine forest. "Oh dear. Kurai, stop playing with him. That's bad form." Kurai grimaced at her sensei then ducked Katsuo's wild punch. He over-balanced and fell.

"Too much effort," Kurai stated quietly. She yelped when he wrapped his legs around her knees and threw her. She landed on her feet like a true Torakiba, but she was panting from the effort.

"Too little attention," Katsuo retorted, brushing pine-needles out of his stone-colored hair. "C'mon, Hikaru. Wanna spar?"

"Actually, Katsuo, _I _would like to spar. Just to see if you're all talk." He blanched as Inazuma stood up, ruffled her ponytail and stretching.

"Sure, Sensei," he said with applause-worthy bravado, even though he'd gone paper-white.

"Good. Come at me." In all honesty, he _did_go at her. But there is a difference between an obnoxious genin and an AnBu veteran. He was laid out flat in less than three seconds. "You need to try some subtleness," She told him, nudging him with a foot. "Girls don't like it when you're obvious." Hikaru snickered, dropping lightly down from her perch. "You need to learn better control. Go run up that tree for me, would you? You too, Kurai and Hikaru. Mark how far you get up."

"Umm… how are we supposed to walk up a tree?" Hikaru eyed the slick bark dubiously.

"With chakra, dearest," Inazuma answered with strained patience. "Are you a shinobi or not? Concentrate the chakra into the bottoms of your feet. Too much and too little will make you fall off. Mark the bark with kunai. Go!" The three genin all exchanged looks.

_I've read about this, _Kurai thought as Hikaru and Katsuo went charging up their respective trees. They hadn't even gotten two feet above the ground before they were blasted back by too much chakra. _You have to strike the perfect balance. Harmony is the key, they say, for all Jutsus. _She placed her foot against the tree, concentrating. She kept upping the levels of chakra until she felt ill and her foot was thrown off. _Okay. Too much. Now, RUN!_

She took three steps back then charged up the tree, her chakra varying with each step as she felt the crevices in the bark. She didn't stop until she realized that there was no more tree to climb up and the branches were whippy. She squeaked and dropped a few feet to latch onto the trunk. "That's nice, Kurai," Inazuma called up from forty feet below her, Hikaru and Katsuo at her side. "No need to show off."

"How do I get down?" Kurai shouted back. She could just hear Hikaru and Katsuo snickering.

"Lessee here. You have all your limbs, chakra, jutsus, you're a ninja, AND you're a Torakiba. Gee, how _do_you getdown?" Kurai winced at the merciless sarcasm.

She clenched her eyes tight and dropped like a stone from her perch, branches whipping past her. When she felt the time was right, she forced chakra into her feet to walk on the water vapor in the air. She opened her eyes slowly. "So you're not a total idiot. Makes my job easier."

"No fair. How come you get to learn cool jutsus?" Katsuo demanded. Kurai had halted her descent about two feet from the ground. She stepped down onto the carpet of pine-needles. "Sensei, will you teach us that?"

"No. You're too heavy. Keep practicing, darlings. Ignorance waits for no one."

"Why this sudden need to train us?" Hikaru demanded, planting her hands on her hips. "Before you just let us do our own thing, occasionally telling us what we were doing wrong."

Inazuma gave her blonde niece a sidelong look. "You… really want to know?"

"Yes!" the three genin chorused. Three slips of paper appeared in the former AnBu's hand.

"Fill these out and hand them back by tomorrow." They each took a slip.

"Wait. Chuunin… exam?" Katsuo read. "You're… you're going to let us become chuunin?"

"ONLY if you can get through without getting killed," Inazuma corrected, bopping him upside the head. "ONLY if you don't embarrass me. ONLY if you get serious with your training. And only, ONLY if you don't disgrace our entire village. Savvy?"

"I'm in," Katsuo said, shoving the entry form into his back pocket. He was grinning like a maniac.

"I am _so_ in," Hikaru, wearing a similar grin, looked the paper over greedily. Kurai had to think. She was weak, under-sized, and got sick easily. What could Inazuma-sensei possible have in mind?

"Hoi, Gaki. You in?" she looked up at her sensei. Inazuma's eyebrows were raised in her usual expression of none-too-kind amusement. But there was something else in her reddish brown eyes. And then Kurai realized what it was: encouragement. Sensei believed she could do. Sensei knew she had it in her to compete in one of the most brutal tests of a shinobi's life. She took a deep breath and clenched her fists.

"I'll do it!" she said. _And I'll show them all what I can do. I'll show them all that I'm NOT a waste of time, a waste of effort. I CAN be the best ninja ever. And someday… _a dream she had hardly dared to think of popped into her head. _…I'll become the best shinobi there is!_

* * *

"Can it get any hotter?" Katsuo whined, sagging against a tree. 

"Quit complaining," Inazuma sensei fanned herself, jacket tied around her waist. "You haven't seen hot until you've been to Sunagakure. Now _that _is hot."

"It's like… a really humid oven." Kurai said faintly, lying flat-out on the grass beside the road, thin chest rising and falling rapidly.

"It's not _that _bad," Hikaru scoffed, but she was perspiring. "How far to Konoha?"

"About… three hours' walk. We can cut that down to three minutes, right, chickadees?" Inazuma asked sweetly. Groans met her announcement. "Chop, chop. Break time is over. It starts in a week, you know. You'll want to take the time to really get to know your opponents."

The three genin got to their feet, Kurai somewhat shakily. They were off in a flash, mere blurs through the trees.

* * *

A/N: Umm, yeah, sooo… officially off hiatus. :D For how long, I have no idea. I decided Kurai needed some more love. I think she's awesome. I'm rereading the earlier volumes of Naruto, so this is about the timeframe of the ill-fated chuunin exams. 


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